Experts say Cyclone Chidoo was caused by warmer temperatures in the Indian Ocean due to climate change.
At least 94 people have been killed in Mozambique as Cyclone Chido raged through the Indian Ocean last week, the country’s disaster management agency said on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 76.
The cyclone devastated the French island of Mayotte and destroyed 110,000 homes in Mozambique before making landfall on mainland Africa, authorities said.
This comes as the southern African country is reeling from a deadly post-election crisis, with the party in power since Mozambique’s independence from Portugal at odds with an opposition party that is crying foul over allegations of electoral fraud. I woke up.
After making landfall, the storm pounded the northern province of Cabo Delgado with wind gusts of around 260 km/h (160 mph) and dumped 250 mm (10 inches) of rain in one day.
That region of northern Mozambique is regularly devastated by tropical storms and grapples with unrest from a long-running Islamist insurgency.
More than 500,000 of the 620,000 Mozambicans affected by the storm are concentrated in Cabo Delgado.
In the hard-hit Mekfi district, strong winds tore off the roof of a mosque, images taken by UNICEF show.
Presidential candidate Daniel Chapo of the ruling Frelimo party, whose victory at the polls in October has been accused by opposition parties of fraud, visited the affected areas on Sunday.
At least 130 people have been killed in protests against Chapo’s victory in an election that international observers say was marred by fraud, according to Plataforma Decide.
Figures from local civil society organizations are cited by Amnesty International.
“Our brothers need them.”
Chapo, who is scheduled to take office as president on January 15 if the Constitutional Council approves the election results by Monday, appealed on public television to people across the country to donate food and clothing.
“Even if we use them, our brothers need them,” he urged.
Protests against Frelimo’s declaration of victory have crippled city centers and resulted in the closure of several Mozambican power plants.
Police have been accused of using live ammunition against demonstrators to quell the protests.
Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane threatened “chaos” if the Constitutional Council legitimized the initial result that put him in second place in the Oct. 9 poll.
For the time being, Mozambique remains the country with the highest number of deaths due to chido.
Seven days after the cyclone hit Mayotte, the French Interior Ministry reported that 35 people were killed and around 2,500 injured on the island.
But there are fears the death toll could rise sharply, given the large number of illegal immigrants from the nearby Comoros Islands who tend to live in Mayotte’s many slums that were crushed by the storm.
The Comoros, which also claims sovereignty over Mayotte, declared a national day of mourning in the wake of Cyclone Chido, even though there were no deaths on the territory.
The cyclone entered Malawi after passing through Mozambique.
According to the Malawi Disaster Management Authority, 13 people were killed and nearly 30 injured in the area, although the force was reduced.
The storm struck as Malawi and Mozambique were experiencing the worst drought to hit southern Africa in 100 years, according to the United Nations.
© 2024 AFP
Source: Death toll from Cyclone Chido in Mozambique rises to 94 (December 22, 2024) From https://phys.org/news/2024-12-cyclone-chido-death-toll-mozambique.html 2024 Retrieved December 22, 2017
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